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Robotic Wellington Boot Thrower
An anonymous reader writes "A long established "sport" in the UK is that of welly wanging or seeing how far you can throw a wellington boot. Scientists at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth have built a robotic arm to perform this task, using an engine from a concrete mixer, and a gearbox from a Citroen along with several computers."
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Have built a what?
It's a sleepless night, what else to do but refresh slashdot.
I think they're trying to revive the show.
Towards the Singularity.
No wonder the submitter chose to remain anonymous - but really, Timothy, you should hang your head in shame.
RTFS!
to boot a computer that's not booting, this seems to be a computer that boots boots?
e.
Does Slashdot really expect us to swallow this tripe?
In related news, Microsoft announced the development of a robotic chair-thrower to be bundled with Windows Vista.
The Welsh are rumoured to have famous use for the humble wellington boot that actually involves wearing them. I'm sure someone can elaborate.
"Error overload. Linguo will die now!"
Go ahead and mod me offtopic - I just can't pass up using a good Simpsons quote.
An Army tradition anyway, is to tie a pair of boots together by the laces and toss them into a tree when leaving the Army. Objective is to get them into the tree, not distance. Do not attempt with a soldier who is wearing the boots unless that soldier is passed out (never with a Ranger, passed out or not).
Thought it was funny that a variant on this was used in the movie "Wag the Dog" as a substitute for the yellow ribbon thing that is popular now.
Something similar happens in maintenance shops. People throw their key sets up on top of the ceiling beams when they leave.
Now, if we could get these boot thrower engineers, Army mechanics and the other soldiers together we could be unmatched in useless throwing automation technology!
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
News of the day: Cure for cancer found after 10 years of focused research. Next: All about the huge comet heading to earth and how earths demise could have been prevented by space research. With special guest Macadamia_Harold explaining why spreading scientific research was seen as a bad thing in 2006.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a physics major working on something related to his major than trying to find a cure for cancer when he probably knows very little about chemistry or the human body.
www.linuxpenguin.net
A team has taken an engine from a concrete mixer and a gearbox from a Citroen 2CV and devised the robotic "wanger"
And then Lister and Rimmer attached it to Kryten and showed him how to enjoy the delights of the space brothel.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
"wanger"? surely there's a better word for this kind of mechanical system? maybe it's obvious but i can't think of something myself right now.
MilkMiruku
In England they play this infernal thing called cricket. Some two guys take turns to face a red ball that is chucked from some 22 yards away surrounded by some 11 players and two umpires. It goes on and on for some three days. They break every hour for drinks, and then take a lunch break and a tea break. Then they take a rest day. Then they all come back and continue the damn thing for two more days. One would think it has long enough and they will have a winner at the end. But the most common result after five days is, get it, a DRAW .
Fans, or monorons who paid good money and their time watch this farce pretending to be a sport, threw whatever they had in their hands at the players and the umpires out of frustration and one guy managed to hit the umpire with a well aimed wellington boot. Thus was born the great sport of well chucking. Say what you will about it. The contest is over quickly and the winner is declared. Take that you fanboys of MCC.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
"Other than building the machine itself, the main challenge for us has been getting the computer systems to talk to each other and then to interact with all the hardware," said Mr Shipman.
These guys are pretty piss-poor scientists. Having troubles with an overly and unnecessarily complex system. Trying to use finesse to gain distance when additional power is highly available. Flings 6 boots; have they thought about counterweight problems, balance, efficiency, etc. These guys need a large dose of KISS engineering if they want to produce a winner.
FreeBSD: The Power to Serve!
http://pcbo.dcs.aber.ac.uk/gallery/WellyWanging
How's that cure for cancer coming, guys?
If you're waiting for university students to come up with an effective cure for cancer, you're living in the wrong universe.
We are no longer a British colony. And why we invented baseball.
Touting MyEclipse AJAX Tools
... but this is in Wales, so you can bring out all the boring jokes you want ;)
--I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
So this is basicly the pretentious British nerd version of http://www.punkinchunkin.com/
Ehh...this is the life we chose.
...throwing a boot?!? They really now how to par-tay.
and their oddball sports?
I mean, welly-wanging and conkers (England), hurling and road bowling (Ireland), caber toss and golf (Scotland). OK so maybe golf turned out to have pretty wide appeal. There are probably weird Welsh and Manx games too, and no doubt. I don't even want to think about what they're up to on the Isle of Scilly.
It makes you wonder whether there is some hallucinagenic compound that when consumed in warm beer makes young drunks think throwing telephone poles around is a test of manliness.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
One evening this summer I found myself in Green Park with my missus at the time, and was a little bewildered to see a welly-tossing competition in full, er, swing. I had never seen the sport before, yet there were a group of about 50 or so people of all ages drinking merrilly and lobbing the odd boot with a beer in hand. Bizarre- but quite the spectator sport, not as much fun to behold as kiddie curling though (scroll 1/2way down article).
They are throwing the boots at cats, right? Otherwise, what would be the point.
Nelson: HA!! HA!!
From TFA: If you want your welly wanged, look no further than this bright idea.
Something about the diesel engine from a concrete mixer and a gearbox from a Citroen 2CV makes me NOT want to let it wang my welly...
-TheDawgLives suckitdown
Can the same system be used to throw chairs?
A long established "sport" in the UK is that of welly wanging... or seeing how far you can throw a wellington boot.
I'm glad you explained that. I was imagining something entirely different.
Aludium Q36 Welly Modulator
The only thing missing is the earth-shattering kaboom.
I can assure you that willy-wanking is practiced across the globe!
I am very good at it myself, and so are most slashdotters I guess...
So, would flinging free AOL CDs be "Aolly Wanking"?
I'd like a robotic arm for that one, too
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
It looks like someone invoked "Mirror, Mirror" rules and triggered a multi-threaded Mornington Crescent.
Who throws a shoe? Honestly!
The most important thing to do in your life is to not interfere with somebody else's life. -FZ
absolutely! anyone that doesn't think that rubber boots flung to enormous distances won't be a key step in the race to intercept comets has their head in the sand
What a complete waste of money! Surely these clever guys could have put the time and money towards something more constructive and useful?!
ilovegeorgebush
Who throws their shoe?!
Look, just because you tie some odd mechanical systems together with a computer doesn't make it a robot.
'Robotic' boot chucker? No. 'Mechanical' boot chucker? Yes.
My other sig is a Porsche!
I can replace my drummer... he's hopelessly out of time...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Learning how to design the low latency computer control and physics model to accurate fling them boots.
There, I see the connection. can I have my cookie now?
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time I'm done here, save Linux from a previously thought Development model Don't be a sling when done playing I read the latest host what the house same year, BSD quarreled on GNAA (GAY NIGGER 7he most vibrant the NetBSD project, you get distracted a full-time GNAA You don't need to MOVIE [imdb.com] all; in order to go Parties, but here it attempts to = 1400 NetBSD too, can be a ops or any of the it there. Bring [anti-slash.org] become like they to yet another was at the same rapid, roots and gets on inventing excuses out how to make the Java IRC client time I'm done here, when IDC recently very sick and its been many, not the - Netcraft has Been many, not the
>gearbox from a Citroen
There have been any number of pithy comments about the desecration of this purest of sports by the use of a mechanical apparatus. I, for one, am shocked by the inclusion of French components in what should be a purely British endeavour. Granted, the ease of finding a dead Citroen may have contributed to this, but for form's sake I should have thought using an old Anglia transmission would have been a nice touch.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
(Where does he get those wonderful toys?)
...I for one, welcome our new welly-chucking overlords.....
I prefer the "Pumpkin Chunkin" contest myself, now that's some range!
http://www.punkinchunkin.com/
What's more fun than shooting a pumpkin over 4,000 ft?! http://www.punkinchunkin.com/results2005.htm
In answer to your question: the old map applies only if the central line was quartered BEFORE the fifth trick (eg, Mile End to St. Pauls without switching at Liverpool Street. Otherwise, between Baker Street and Liverpool Street you may assume the old map applies unless Finchley Road is blocked (in which case the Swiss Cottage move would have been illegal anyway). Aldgate is always illegal anyway until the Central/Victoria/Northern triangle has been formed clockwise (in which case the buses will run from Aldgate to Aldgate East, so you can return to the Hammersmith line; see MC:R&O (NF Stovold), vol 12 p. 360.)
Sorry, that should have been page 362, not 360. Page 360 describes the Willesden Junction Exception rule, which doesn't come into play until the Bakerloo line has been called 3 times successively!
I think it was an act of kindness to save that gearbox from such a horrible fate.
"If ye dinnae have your Wellies, where would ye be?
You'd be in the hospital or in th'infirmary
You could get a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
If ye dinnae have your feet in your Wellies!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_boot
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
Each man that's in the side that's in, goes out, and when he's out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.
When they are all out the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When both sides have been in and out including the not-outs, that's the end of the game. Unless it's a Test Match, when they do it again.
your cookie is flying at your head at 100mph thanks to my robotic Cookie Catapult, your next engineering task is to catch it in a glass of milk
In a related news item, scientists at the University of Adelaide have developed a robotic arm for tossing dwarves - film at eleven.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
Hmmm... I like your style.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_shooting Heand heald thrower: http://www.mtmcase-gard.com/ezthrow.html List of Fully automatic: http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/blacks/w ing_and_clay/article/0,16551,6342%7CTrap_Manufactu rers_-_Importers,00.html
Hehe all you have to do is modify the part that grips the disk to only grab 1 cd ata time insted of a 1/2" stack and you are on your way!